Em and the Big Hoom

by Jerry Pinto

His ears are the sweetest thing about him. They look like bits of bacon curled up from too much frying.’

‘It’s not a sin if you’re married, is it?’ ‘It’s always a sin according to the Wholly Roaming Cat Licks.’

‘I thought you boys knew everything about the cock and cunt business!’

I loved the word hypothesis. It sounded adult and beautifully alien. I had never heard anything like it before. I wanted more words like it. I felt, instinctively, that when you had enough words like hypothesis, you would be able to deal with the world. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to deal with the world. It seemed too big and demanding and there wasn’t a fixed syllabus.

Have you ever noticed how rain clears the air? Everything stands out but it also looks a little thinner, as if the dust had been keeping things together.

Conversations with Em could be like wandering in a town you had never seen before, where every path you took might change course midway and take you with it. You had to keep finding your way back to the main street in order to get anywhere.